The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Side 17

Vol. 62 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
107
The End of Explorations and
Settlement in Vinland
by Haraldur Bessason
“At last we caught sight of America, a blue line on the western horizon. For the longest
time my grandfather gazed at it exclaiming again and again ‘Wineland the Good! Leif the
Lucky!’ A few deckhands standing nearby burst out laughing as they, in a distorted accent,
tried to mimic my grandfather’s words.”
- quote from Eirikur Hansson, Johann Magnus Bjarnason’s autobiographical immigrant novel
which describes the coming of Icelandic immigrants to Nova Scotia in the mid-1870s
A few years ago the discovery
of the North American mainland
was commemorated in different
places on both sides of the
Atlantic, with the peoples of
Iceland and Norway and their "
descendants in North America
playing a central role in many
of the festivities. Most of these
enterprises attracted favourable
attention. As was to be expected,
the ethnic origins of the principal
discoverer Leif Eiriksson were debat
ed. Nonetheless, one must admit that dif-
ferent ideas about his country of origin
have not altered anyone’s conviction that,
except for his taste in women, he must have
been a man of good luck. To explain this
minor deviance of his from the straight line
of good fortune, the story has it that he
begat a son named Forgils with a certain
Forgunna, a Hebridean woman. She
appears to have been a sorceress and is like-
ly to have shown some ghost like qualities
before she vacated her place among ordi-
nary mortals. Their son Forgils was born in
the Hebrides where his mother raised him
and then sent him to his father, Leif
Eiriksson in Greenland . We do not know
if Forgils, Leif Eiriksson’s only son, stayed
on in Greenland or whether he returned
from there to his native Hebrides. The only
comment on him in Eirfk’ s Saga is that
“there seemed to be something uncanny
about him all his life.” Forgils
seems to have disappeared from
the scene without family or off-
spring. Anyone wishing to trace
his or her origins back to Leif
Eiriksson should therefore
exercise a degree of caution and
avoid making statements like
the one heard on Icelandic televi-
!_ ■ sion a few years ago to the effect
if that all Icelanders are the descen-
dants of Leif Eiriksson. Only in
folktales or myths would women from
the realm of witchcraft and ghosts be capa-
ble of having normal offspring. Who is
normal and who is not is then indeed an
interesting question.
Gu8ri3 Forbjarnardottir, Leif
Eiriksson’ s sister-in-law from her first
marriage, and her second husband, Forfinn
Karlsefni, have a much more secure posi-
tion from the standpoint of progeny or
genealogy than other people in the Vinland
Sagas. Most Icelanders should be able to
trace their origins back to these illustrious
explorers.
On many of the recent festive occa-
sions celebrating the discovery of America,
the name of Bjarni Herjolfsson has rarely
been mentioned if at all. If we are to place
any credence in the Gramlendinga Saga, he
was the first European (Icelander) to make
landfall in North America, playing there-
fore a very important role in the history of